Honoring Roots: Introducing the Stewardship Committee
Every lending system is built on an inheritance, whether acknowledged or not.
In the case of psychedelics, that inheritance is inseparable from Indigenous land, ceremonial practice, and living lineages of care that long predate modern clinical, wellness, or investment frameworks.
Psychedelics are not a novelty or emerging market.
They are part of ancient knowledge systems held, protected, and practiced by Indigenous and Tribal communities across generations. Any financial infrastructure touching this work carries a responsibility to proceed with consent, accountability, and benefit-sharing.
The Stewardship Committee, currently in formation, exists to hold that responsibility.
Rather than launching the Stewardship Loan Program immediately, Inner Guru has chosen to pause. No loans will be issued under this initiative until appropriate Indigenous representation, leadership, and stewardship are fully in place. The committee’s first role is not to distribute capital, but to determine whether, how, and under what conditions lending should occur at all.
This committee is being formed to ensure that any future financial activity connected to Indigenous psychedelic lineages is guided by relationship rather than urgency, and by lived knowledge rather than institutional assumptions.
When lending is introduced, it is intended to take the form of revolving, interest-free loans designed in partnership with Indigenous and Tribal communities. The purpose would not be expansion or extraction, but continuity; supporting facilitators, legacy healers, and community-led initiatives in ways that remove financial barriers while honoring sovereignty, cultural integrity, and long-term stewardship.
What this ultimately looks like is not pre-defined.
Rather than prescribing categories, metrics, or timelines, the Stewardship Committee will exist as a living body responsible for shaping governance, accountability, and alignment with time. Inner Guru will make no claims of ownership over land, medicines, ceremonial knowledge, or intellectual property, and will defer to community-defined forms of reporting, evaluation, and consent.
→ Apply to the Stewardship Committee
The central goal of the Stewardship Committee is simple, but not easy: to ensure that any financial system touching psychedelic work rooted in Indigenous lineages does not move faster than relationship, and does not prioritize access over accountability.
As this work unfolds, we invite aligned donors to support the formation and long-term sustainability of the Stewardship Committee itself. Contributions will be held until the committee determines appropriate use, governance, and stewardship pathways, and will be reported transparently through public summaries shaped by committee guidance.
We are currently inviting Indigenous and Tribal healers, facilitators, and community members to apply to participate in the Stewardship Committee.
Participation is not advisory in name only. Committee members will help determine when lending proceeds, how responsibility is held, and what ethical boundaries guide the program before any capital is deployed. This is an invitation to shape the foundation and implementation, so that when resources move, they do so with consent, care, and continuity from the beginning.
